Friday, May 25, 2007

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) (5 сообщений)

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)  RSS  The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
http://www.tuaw.com
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  • Mini-Review: Power Support Track Pad Film

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    While attracting dirt and grime is a hazard of owning a notebook, the neat-freak and 'oh my gosh this is expensive computer equipment' portions of my brains have always been bothered by how icky my MacBook Pro can get over time. I've tried a few products that are designed to protect one portion or another of a MacBook Pro from dirt, and Power Support's Track Pad Film is just such a product. It comes as two separate pieces - one for the mouse button and another for the track pad - and Power Support sells them as a two-pack so you get a backup in case you make a mistake or have a friend who could use some track pad protection.

    Since the Track Pad Film is basically a clear sticker that is designed to allow you to still use your MacBook's track pad, application is pretty simple. Some people prefer to wash the heck out of their hands, while I personally just peel back the underside of the sticker and apply without ever actually touching the film. There isn't much to say about how well the film protects your track pad and mouse button: it's a clear sticker, so those two components are pretty well covered, as long as you applied them properly. 'Nuff said.

    In terms of the performance of the actual piece of film that covers the track pad, I have a mixed opinion: for the most part, the track pad still responds fairly accurately. I'm a dual-mode notebook mouser myself - I can use a track pad or a USB mouse with almost equal comfort and precision, so I'm not one of those people who's dead in the water if I have nothing but a fingertip to steer with. However, I notice at random times that my trackpad accuracy momentarily goes out the window - for a stroke or two on the pad, it might pick up only half the normal distance the mouse would typically travel, or the mouse might get a little shaky on the screen, as if Mac OS X is having a hard time understanding exactly where my finger is and where I want the mouse to go.

    Overall, if we had an official rating system on TUAW, I would give the Track Pad Film a 7 out of 10. It's a decent product that can certainly help protect one's track pad from dirt and general wear and tear, but this occasional drop in accuracy is a big ding for this blogging power user.

    I found Track Pad Film in a Colorado Apple Store for $12.95, but you can also order it for your MacBook/Pro (including a version specific for the black MacBook) from Power Support.
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  • PC World 100 Best of 2007 honors Parallels, Tiger

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    When a leading computer publication has a revolving-door editor-in-chief hiring policy, it can make other weird editorial decisions look sane and prudent by comparison. Exhibit A: the annual PC World "100 Best" feature, which presents the 100 best products of 2007... online in May, and in print for July. Not even half the year has gone by, but the farsighted crew at PCW has already figured out the best of the bunch! Might as well take the rest of the year off, then...

    The real reasons that the 100 Best comes out mid-year (covering the end of 2006 and the start of 2007) are detailed in a post from once-and-current big kahuna Harry McCracken. It comes down to legacy scheduling of the product awards around the June date of the no-longer-extant PC Expo trade show. That's a relief; I was worried that we were changing the calendar again.

    Anyway, more to the point: the list is top-heavy with some big Mac products, including TUAW darling Parallels Desktop at #6 (the top-ranked application on any desktop platform, not counting #1 Google Apps Premier Edition), Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger at #9 and AppleTV at #11. The Intel Core 2 Duo processor that powers new Macs is a top pick at #2. Noticeably absent from the top 100 was the latest hotness from Redmond, which may correlate with PC World's comment on the Tiger ranking: "Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either." Brrrrr.
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  • Apple ad spoofs with PC as the protagonist

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    This one has been climbing up the bloggeist for a few weeks, and it's a fine apertif for the start of the holiday weekend. Copywriter Laurie McGuinness, moonlighting as a commercial parody director, made a series of four Mac/PC ad spoofs in early 2007, with PC as the businesslike, successful protagonist and Mac as the geeky, freelance hand-to-mouth sidekick. (Is it just me, or does the guy playing PC look like a thinner, less crazy version of John Dvorak?)

    All four ads are viewable on McGuinness' site or on YouTube, and they're mostly moderately funny; one exception is the 'Music' spot, which suggests that iPod users are selfish goobers who don't like to share music. Poor form!

    If you've got a favorite Mac/PC ad parody, let me know in the comments and I'll highlight the top choices in a weekend post.

    Thanks, Beth!
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  • Take a chance on your friend's music with an 'iPod exchange'

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    The Ocala Star-Banner has an interesting story involving an 'iPod exchange,' where two of their reporters decided to swap iPod shuffles for a few days to get a taste for each others' musical interests. The key to their experiment, at least in their eyes, is the fact that they specifically used shuffles, so neither could scan through the library on the iPod or even tell what songs they were listening to; it was literally more about the experience of what music the iPod would serve up, rather than skimming through a simple list of artists and songs with which one could pass a musical judgement.

    I'll save the dramatic results for your own reading, but the concept is an interesting one: in a world where we increasingly are keeping more and more - or perhaps the entirety -of our music libraries in our pocket, what would happen if you temporarily traded your collection with a friend, co-worker or that guy you just can't meet eye-to-eye with on [insert band here]? Could you gain a musical appreciation for your iPod exchangee? Or would you scratch them off your listening party list forever?
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  • Found Footage: Possible video taken by iPhone?

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    Could this possibly be the first video taken by an iPhone? Over at iPhone Matters, Gregory Ng posts that he received a copy of this video from an Apple Store employee in California. In the video, you can see what appears to be an iPhone appearing on the iMac screen as recorded by its iSight. The video is not the highest quality and Ng writes that the sender compressed the video before sending it over email. What do you think? Real or hoax?
    Thanks to Hadley Stern

    Real iPhone Video or not?
    Looks real to me
    It's a hoax, dudes
    Not sure
    Huh? The iPhone does video?
    pollcode.com free polls
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